Demons Cannot Love
by MightlessKnight
Summary: For some, everything comes in black and white. Evil and pure. For demons, black is the only real thing out there. Evil. Demons live for putting fear into the hearts of humans. When a demon does not live for that reason, they are considered White Demons. They feel things the way humans do-emotion, pain-and can be broken. Only sometimes, being more like humans is good.
1. Love Potion

The door creaked, startling Tia out of thought. She looked up, past the bones hanging from the ceiling, and saw a man. He had brown breeches on. Just by looking at them, Tia could tell they were high quality. No wrinkles, holes, or snags anywhere in sight. His white shirt was tucked into his trousers, a black vest covering up the fact that his shirt was not buttoned. Tia snorted, he was doing a lousy job at trying to look like he belonged in a witch's hut. Not that she was a witch or anything.

When he saw her staring, his eyes widened and he took half a step back. Tia wondered what had triggered that reaction, surely she wasn't _that_ ugly, until she remembered that she hadn't taken the glamour potion that day. She hadn't taken it, so he could see the real her. Shaking off the fright that this thought gave her, she smiled her biggest and best smile. He took two steps back looking straight at her teeth. She mumbled a swear word, closing her mouth and then proceeding to cover it with her hand.

The strange, rich man-or boy, really, he looked only about seventeen-turned around as if to leave. He stopped right before his hand touched the rusted handle attached to the crooked door. Tia really needed to tell her mother to cast a charm to fix their shop. Although Tia knew her mother would never do it, saying it would ruin the whole 'look', she had to try. Tia could tell that everyone who walked into the little witch's hut in the middle of the forest was scared. The black, creaking wood made the place darker than it needed to be. Hand, foot, and arm bones lead people to believe that if they get on a witch's bad side, they would end up in a pot, slowly cooking over a blue flame.

Potions and ingredients for potions of all kinds littered all selves in the small room. They bubbled and sparked and glowed and whispered. The only place that wasn't overflowing with potions was behind the bone wood desk. Instead, behind the desk, there was a mess of papers, spell books, and nine books on Potion Making 101.

Tia was tapping her foot anxiously as the mystery boy walked up to the desk she was seated at. Up close, Tia could make out his eyes, a blue so pale and vivid it looked like lightning striking the earth. She stared a second too long looking into his eyes, getting lost in how his eyes started from midnight blue swirling around the rim of the iris and then pale blue with mixes of white heading for the pupil.

She instantly looked away when he cleared his throat. She didn't say anything, and neither did he. The silence grew more and more uncomfortable before he said, "I am in need of a love potion."

Tia was quite confused as to why he needed a love potion. He was beautiful, to say the least. His blonde hair shined against the tan of his skin, making it look like he had a halo above his head that no one could see, but everyone could imagine. _Smooth and strong._ Those were the words going through Tia's head as a different thought then occurred to her. He might _not_ be looking for a romantic love potion. _There are other kinds of love_, she thought and then asked, "Romantic, Friendly, or Parently?"

"Romantic," came his simple reply.

Tia came around from the table and walked to the front left of the shop. She didn't miss the flinch he made as she walked past. He most definitely thought that she was going to steal his money and then kill him. Tia wouldn't do anything like that. At least she wouldn't while she had control over her own body. Putting one long leg in front of the other, Tia didn't look over her shoulder, even though she knew he was watching her. She reached the left-side selves in a matter of seconds, but, for her, it felt like walking days across a desert in blistering heat.

Looking through the already made potions, she found the one she was looking for only to knock it onto the ground. She swore, very loudly, causing the man, still standing in front of the desk, to look over at her. The expression on his face caused her to blush, something she avoided with great lengths. It was the look of utter surprise, as if he could not believe a lady would swear. Tia was already an outcast, at least thats what she thought, for being what she was. If swearing was added to the list of all the things wrong with her, it would be miles long.

Ducking her head and letting her black hair shield her face from his sight, she got on her knees. The broken shards of brown glass found their way into her apron pocket, and the pink liquid got soaked up by her favorite dress. She watched as the dull, pink potion climbed higher and higher into the cream cloth of her dress, urging it to go faster in her mind. It did not go any faster, and Tia resorted to helping. Even though she did not want to, she grabbed the bottom of her dress and mopped the rest of the mess away.

As Tia got off of her knees and unto her feet, she wished that the stranger in her shop would not look at her ruined dress. As always, her wish didn't come true. He stared. And stared. And stared at the bottom of her dress, most likely wondering things that could not be good. Tia didn't say, or mumble, any swear words. No, she did not even mouth them, but she did think them. She thought of every unladylike word her mother had ever said and more. After her mind was cleanse of any bad words, she lied a lie that was half lie, half truth.

"I am so terribly sorry. It seems I do not have the potion you seek. If you could wait awhile, perhaps a week, I will have it ready by then."

"A week, you say?," Once Tia nodded, he continued, "That will be fine. Is there a certain time I should come and pick it up?"

Tia ponder the question for some time, going over everything that needed to be done and when she would have the love potion ready. She nodded even before she realized what she was doing, and said, "Next Monday will do. The potion will most definitely be done by then. Again, I am so sorry. I should have made another potion as soon as I sold the last one."

He didn't give Tia another glance, which seemed rude, and left, knocking his head on a hand bone that dangled just in front of the door. Tia watched him leave through one of two windows in that room, feeling hurt as he ran from the hut like an army of the king's knights were chasing him. She should not feel hurt, though. She had just met the man, and he had seen her for what she truly was. Everyone that had even the slightest bit of fear in them would be terrified of her.

Black wood creaked under Tia's feet as she made her way to the bone desk. She didn't sit in the chair that was behind the desk, as she normally would, but she instead stood in front of it, like the handsome man had. She stood there and thought, putting her hand in her apron pocket where the glass was as she did so. She was consumed by all of the possibilities making another love potion presented that she did not feel her hand get cut on a sharp piece of glass. She still did not move as her blood soaked through the fabric of her dress, leaving black wherever it touched.

_**What? Black? **_**He, he, he, he, ha. I adore cliffhangers, only when I am the one giving them, so very much. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. I LOVE this story. It plays out so well in my head. So beautiful and breathtaking and heart-shattering. Hopefully it will be just as wonderful on paper as it is in my head. Okay, Mightless Knight, you sound like you are bragging, so ****_stop it_****! Sorry 'bout that...**

_**Mighty Mites? Mightless Knights.**_

_**-Mightless Knight**_


	2. Mother Vesta

Though she was very reluctant to do so, Tia knew she was going to have to tell her mother about what happened. Not about breaking a potion or having a handsome man come into their shop, her mother wouldn't care about those things, but that she-almost-sold a love potion. That was her mother's number one rule, 'Never sell love potions, they can be dangerous things.' Once her mother figures out what Tia did, the witch would just tell her not to give it to the young man. He doesn't have it, so don't give it to him.

For some reason, Tia _wanted _to help the mysterious man out. Was it because she found him attractive, or because he said he would come back to the little witch's hut for a little vial of a potion? What ever the reason was, she could not seem to grasp it. If she came close to finding out, it slipped out of her hands like water. It spilled, all the way to the ground, where it crashed and could never be the same again. Things like attractive got changed to caring, something that Tia could never know if he was or not, and then to determined.

Tia could still could not describe him in words when the front door creaked a very familiar creak. When she looked up, she saw her mother, not a customer like she thought it would be, dressed all in black. Black dress sleeves that whet all the way down her arms, only to be met with even blacker gloves. The only thing that wasn't black was her mother's eyes, which filled up with an emerald green. Happiness lit the witch's eyes as she made her way to Tia, her feet not making a single sound on the floor.

"Tia, my sweet Tia, do come here and give your poor mother a hug," she cooed.

Tia nodded and smiled and went over to hug her mother, all previous thoughts gone. Even though her mother was a short woman, far shorter than Tia, it seemed as if Tia was the one standing on her the tip of her toes to be able to hug her mother properly. They hugged tightly, this being the first time seeing each other in weeks. Since her mother was the best witch around, she liked to gather supplies, like frog's tongue and mermaid tears, before she needed them. There was not an ocean for miles, and mermaids do live in oceans, so her mother had to travel halfway across the kingdoms. Still hugging her mother tightly, her face buried in the dark brown crook of her mother's neck, Tia cried, "Mother, Mother Vesta, oh how I have missed you."

Vesta smiled, showing purely white, though slightly crooked, teeth. Even though Tia didn't see it coming, Vesta gripped her hands tightly, finding a small piece of fabric that was turning black. The witch shook her head, peeling the cloth off of Tia's hand. Fabric all gone, Tia could see a jagged line across the palm of her hand. Inky, black blood flowed through her white fingers, leaving a path wherever it went.

"Tia, oh Tia, what happened? Did a nasty man come in here to try and take you away? Did a razor bird fall into your hand, squirming until you put it down?"

Tia's mother looked at her, waiting for an answer Tia did not want to give, because then she would have to tell the full story. Staring into her mother's clear, deep green eyes, Tia spilled everything. She told how a beautiful man came in, asking for a love potion. She said that the potion broke, and she used her dress to clean it up. She whispered how she promised the young man that she would have another ready by Monday.

As Tia first thought, Mother Vesta's response was not to give him the potion when he comes back for it, to tell him that she couldn't make it in time and would never be able to make it. Tia didn't want to tell him that, no, she wanted to please the man that had been so keen on getting a potion of love that he came into the forest, all alone. Tia could not tell her mother this because it would make her seem like a little girl, instead of fifteen, the normal age to get married for girls. Tia would never get married, never have children, because of what she was. No one would want to sleep beside someone as beastly as her.

None of that matter at that moment, if she told her mother what she was planning, she wouldn't live to see the light of day. Before she could come up with one decent lie, she felt a sharp pain in her left hand. Startled, Tia looked down. What she saw was extraordinary, slightly disturbing, and familiar all the same. Both sides of her cut moved with each other, going forward to connect and stop the cut from bleeding. When the two sides met, Tia watched in fascination as the skin stitched itself together.

After the last thread of ivory skin was in place, Tia said, "Thank you so very much Mother Vesta. I would not have noticed the cut until after I had bled all the blood there is to bleed in one's own body, I am sure of it…..And, Mother Vesta? If it is not a burden to you, may I please go into the town? I saw some gloves that I do love and wish to have. But, in order to go into the town, I will need a glamor potion. But, I do not know where a potion of that kind is."

Tia, finished speaking, waited anxiously. She needed her mother to say yes, it was all part of the plan. If her plan did not go as she had foreseen it, all would be ruined. She would not be able to make the potion the handsome man desires, and that did not appeal to her. Tia, once again, was so consumed by thought that she didn't catch the look of curiosity that passed over Mother Vesta's face.

All Tia heard was, "Well, I suppose….."

**He, he, he, ha. I hope you liked it. Blah, I ate to much sugar. He, he, he, ha!**

_**Might is the power of Nothingness. Mightless is the power of Everythingness.**_

_**-Mightless Knight**_


End file.
